I think alot of people get confused about "Regenerative Braking". Instead of re-hashing it, I'm gonna quote wiki directly.

Basically, a motor and a generator are nearly identical. One creates energy, while the other uses it. Toyota's hybrid Synergy Drive uses a dual mode motor. When you apply a charge, it turns the motor. When you let off the gas, the motor no longer has a charge applied, so it converts to a generator which in-turn charges the batteries. Of course, it takes significantly more energy to create energy, so perpetual motion is not acheived. (perpetual motion is impossible, thanks to physics).

So basically, Regenerative Braking has NOTHING to do with the brakes on the car.

Charles

 

interesting, still doesnt make complete sense but I didnt have a clue how it worked before lol

 

This clear it up?

 

so when your not on the gas, instead of putting power to the wheels, it puts power into the battery or capacitor and saves it for when you accelerate again?

 

Bingo. that's why the Prius does better in the City (stop and go, stoplights) then on the highway! (48mpg city/45mpg highway)

 

so at what point does it switch from electric to gas power? when the batteries run out of juice? also why dont they do a diesel hybrid? wouldnt that just increase mpg's even more?

 

hybrid diesel is on it's way.

The ICE takes over when the battery load is at around 20%. 20% seems to be the magic number.

 

how does the ICE just turn on in the the middle of the drive? it doesnt actually crank over like a regular car does it?

 

yep thats as i understood it. I think that same concept can be applied to other parts of the car to scavenge energy and return it to the batteries. not just energy from the car, energy from the environment.

Solar cells, yep cant run a car on em, but you can trickle some charge back into the batteries to extend your range just a bit.

Wind, not just from your speed but the extra few mph of wind from a head wind say, can be converted back into energy.

Rain. Rain flows over a car, have it flow towards a certain point and use gravity to drive it down over a turbine to generate a small amount of power.

Imagine many such systems, all adding that tiny bit ..

 

shit just the wind that is cause by a car moving.. going 50 mph thats a 50mph wind that your getting, take advantage. I like that idea zate. you could even do that and still have it look cool to, just put a hood scoop or side thing like some cars do for brake venting.